Woodland

Audio work, (21:30 mins) - from the 'Afterlife' series

frenchmottershead_afterlife_10a

French & Mottershead, Woodland. Photo: Paul Blakemore

Woodland is a poetic and visceral work that describes your body’s fade into the leaf litter of the forest floor. This work connects you deeply to your body, and considers the biological and chemical processes that continue long after you are conscious, as you are slowly and gently subsumed by the earth over thousands of years. Woodland is a love poem to the forest, as bodies merge with the molecular environments that support life.

Originally set in the UK, the work has also been adapted into Bushland, a new version tailored for the unique impacts of the Australian temperate forest, and informed by local forensic experts, ecologists and Aboriginal knowledge.

Upcoming:

Selected exhibitions:
Nuit Blanche, Brussels, Belgium
The Ballad of Peckham Rye, London
Ten Days on The Island, Tasmania, Australia, (Bushland)
Royal Botanical Gardens Victoria/Arts House, Melbourne, Australia (Bushland)
Siteworks, Bundanon Trust, NSW, Australia, (Bushland)
Kills 99.9% of All Bacteria, CCA Derry/Londonderry
The Ash Project, University of Kent
In-Time, Guandong Times Museum, Guangzhou, China
Brighton Festival
SICK!, The Whitworth, Manchester
In Between Time, Arnos Court Park, Bristol
Net>Park 2.0, long term installation for Metal Southend
Mayfest, Bristol
New Performance Turku, Finland
Vanishing Entities, London Science Festival
Copenhagen Art Week, at Superkilen in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark (intervention)
SIGNAL, Festival of Urban Intervention, Brussels, Belgium

It is one of those pieces that makes you see the world afresh. It takes you off somewhere, all by yourself, and puts things in perspective.’ – What’s On Stage

‘A hauntingly beautiful journey… about how we become just another part of the land.’  – Witness Performance

‘The first part, the maggots, feels like a violation of the self, even though you are no longer there. But then the process seems so lyrical and perfect.’ – participant feedback

‘To follow the voice and the transformation of the decaying body to my own body is quite disturbing. What amazed me was that the meditative instruction proved to be seductive even after death.’ – participant feedback

‘For archaeologists, death is a happy thing. It’s the beginning of something new. You know, it made me think about when science has made us know so much more about dying and decay and how much it gives to nature… I enjoyed dying very much, there. It was so relaxing, I felt that the earth was pulling me in.’ – participant feedback

 

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